Tag Archives: giveaway

Crispy Green: Crispy Fruit Big Game Giveaway

Crispy Green: Crispy Fruit Big Game Giveaway!!!

We are football fans around here – San Diego Charger fans. My husband is a born and bred fan, and there was no other team to root for when he was growing up – it is his DNA! Since we are fans that rarely see play-offs, we choose to watch the game in a more passing fashion, but we partake in the snacks. This year we are taking the snacks we love, and exchanging them for variations of things we love.

Back in July of 2015 I reviewed a company called Crispy Green and their product called Crispy Fruit – 7/15 review here.

Crispy Green has seven flavors of freeze-dried fruit including Crispy Apples, Crispy Mangoes, Crispy Asian Pears, Crispy Bananas, Crispy Cantaloupe, Crispy Pineapples and Crispy Tangerine. I tried the Crispy Apples, Crispy Mangoes and Crispy Tangerine and they were so good I knew they would make the snack cut. I love that I can get the benefits of fruit, but not the cholestrol and fatty ingredients.

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Stoneridge Orchards Review

Stoneridge Orchards: Review and Giveaway

As any regular readers will know I love companies that have a unique backstory and original origins. Let’s travel back to 1960’s in Central Washington and the modern homesteading lottery. What this Homesteading Lottery did was to hold a lottery and chose “winners”. The “winners” of this lottery won 160 acres of land in Central Washington. As luck would have it, in 1962 a gentleman by the name of Karl Dorsing had not only entered this lottery but won. This win allowed him to move himself and his family to Royal City Washington.

Today those 160 acres are what is known as Royal Ridge Fruits. The fertile high desert region of Central Washington was the perfect environment to grow their all natural organic cherries, blueberries, raspberries, apple and pears. In 2010 this 3rd generational family owned and managed company created Stoneridge Orchards. Stoneridge Orchards was created for use as a consumer brand. With the creation of a consumer brand came the addition of a berry mix, dried peaches slices as well as Greek Yogurt covered fruits and Dark Chocolate covered fruits.

Stoneridge Orchards was kind enough to send us an assortment of their dried fruits and chocolate covered fruits for consideration of a review.

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Sock Club – December 2015 – Review

Sock Club – December 2015 – Review & Giveaway

When you think of California, the first material that comes to mind is generally not wool. People in California tend to live in shorts, bikini tops. and flip-flops – and that is in mid-December. I am not one of these people, as I run cold all the time. I get cold while going through our local grocery store. Since I have this temperature issue, I plan accordingly – I have sweaters in the car and I always wear socks around my house at night.

Despite the warmth factor, I tend to shy away from wool due to the added weight that wool sock provide. I can honestly say that my opinion of wool socks has forever been changed from this months SockClub sock selection for the December sock.

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Stunning Braids Review

Stunning Braids Review and Giveaway

When I was young, the only thing I wanted in life was long hair, but it was the one thing that was a constant no in my house. Many people thought that the reason I was not allowed long hair was that my single father would not know how to braid it. Of all the reasons that existed, this was not one of them and in fact my father was quite adept at dealing with longer hair.

When I finally had the opportunity for longer hair, I was in Jr. High School and wanted to look like my friends. I decide perm my hair for the next 5 years, and rarely adding braids to the style directory in my head. I would attempt to braid my own hair, but it never looked quite right. I was in my early 20’s when I finally figured braiding out, albeit a simple french braid is the most that ever was done.

Now that I am an adult, I ride that fine line of looking silly in braided pigtails but not looking together enough, and I think I finally found a book that will help me not cross that precarious line – Stunning Braids: Gorgeous Hairstyles for Any Occasion from Work to Weddings.

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Newman’s Own Product Review

Newman’s Own Organic: Product Review and Giveaway

I have a confession – before I started this blog I had an aversion to “organic” products. I believed that they were somehow inferior to their non-organic counterparts. Through the past 12 month of blogging I have discovered that there is nothing “inferior” or “less” about organic products. In fact, many times the thing that makes a product stand out from competitors.

Back about 7 years ago I went to the San Diego Zoo with my now husbands sisters. This was very exciting, as the plan was to drop Jason off at work and meet up with sister #1 at the local park and ride. The plan was to ride with sister #1, and meet up with sister #2 and have lunch and walk around the San Diego Zoo. The first stop was lunch, as none of the accompanying children had eaten yet. The 3 of us had all brought lunch, and sister #2 had brought a bag of “Newman’s O’s” to share with us all. At the time I politely declined because I was happy with my non organic chocolate creme cookies.

Since that day I have gotten to know both my sister-in-laws much better and not only are they wonderful mothers, and family members but they also know their food. Prior to meeting these two, I had not really considered reading the ingredients of packaging. I learned early on that to be in this family, label reading and ingredient awareness matters. This is not a negative in any way, but rather a way that all mothers should adopt.

A brand that was brought to my attention as a good positive company was Newman’s Own Organic. While I was a little bewildered and confused as to why she was such a fan, as soon as I began reading on my own, I realized that Newman’s Own goodness extends beyond just food and into the charitable world.

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Victoria Fine Foods: Pasta Sauce Review

Victoria Fine Foods: Pasta Sauce Review and Giveaway

The holidays are approaching and this is the time of year for company coming for meals, pot luck meals and traditions. I have mentioned in past reviews about Jason and his Italian heritage. I hear stories of holiday of his youth that include many meals, and many variations of pasta with sauce.

Since Jason remembers these meals so fondly, he is very specific in his wishes for sauces. The ideal sauce for our house is made of all natural ingredients such as his Grandma made – he watched the ingredients go into the sauce, ensuring the freshness at a young age. The other quality of an ideal sauce is few ingredients, so that the flavors become distinct and individual. When Jason was young his Grandmother would quiz him on what was in the sauces – he usually guessed in the 90% range.

As an adult he has searched for a similar sauce, since the experience is one in a million in one lifetime, the sauce is the settler. As a review blogger we get opportunities to sample different items, and sometimes those items include pasta sauce. This was the case a couple of weeks ago when we had the opportunity to sample Victoria Foods Pasta Sauce.

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The Beehive by Infusion Organique Review

The Beehive Candle and Lotion Review and Giveaway

One of my favorite scents is Lemon, well not just scent but also lemon flavor anything. I went on a chain of meals that consisted of lemon chicken and nothing else. I felt bad for my husband Jason that his pallet was not receiving any sort of flavor stimulation. Flavor aside, I love the freshness of a good lemon scent and will usually purchase the item in question.

Back in July I had the opportunity to review Infusion Organique by Cosmetix West. The candle that I reviewed remains one of my favorite candles, and is only burned on special occasions. When I was doing my research for that review I saw that they had a couple different brands under the Cosmetix West umbrella – one of them being “The Beehive“.

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The Botanical Hand-Lettering Workbook Review

The Botanical Hand-Lettering Workbook Review and Giveaway

I love my hand-writing and especially my cursive writing. I am very lucky in that I can write in a straight line, despite not having any lines. I have always found this to be a priceless talent when I am creating or addressing cards. I have mentioned in the past that I believe the art of hand-writing is become a lost art in this world of gaming, chatting and geo-tagging. If we do not practice and renew our education in this art, we will lose it forever.

I am always looking for books that will help me expand upon my knowledge of hand-writing and different techniques. I love the ability of integrating floral motifs to the design, being able to combine cursive and hand-writing while looking fluid, and anything else that can liven up an otherwise boring envelope.

I recently received the new book by Bethany Robertson entitled “The Botanical Hand-Lettering Workbook: Draw Whimsical & Decorative Styles and Scripts“.

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My Paper Pumpkin November 2015 Review

My Paper Pumpkin November 2015 Kit Review and Giveaway

When I was a child and teenager my job during the holidays was to do the annual holiday cards. It is important to understand that this is something I looked forward to each year. As soon as holiday cards were available at our neighborhood warehouse store, I made sure to impress upon my father their importance. What usually happened is that people we only spoke to once a year would be inspire to call and to do that once yearly checking.

As I have gotten older I no longer do cards on behalf of my father, but my own household. When Jason and I met, one of the first thing I shared was my love of sending holiday cards and he was tasked with getting his families addresses for me. As we have progressed into spouses so have my level of cards into handmade. I generally hand make cards for the holidays as well as thank you cards and invitations.

I remembered this ritual when I saw this months My Paper Pumpkin kit as I had the chance to review My Paper Pumpkin’s kit box’s previous months box (click here). As if made for me and the season the box for November was called “Mistletoe & Holly”.

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EasyAcc: Classsic Powerbank PB10000C Review

Let me start by saying that the products featured in this post were provided to me free of charge courtesy of EasyAcc but this in no way will influence the review to follow and all opinions are my own.

EasyAcc: Classic Powerbank PB10000c Review and Giveaway

I have a terrible habit – I let my phone’s battery get very low. Now when I say low I mean in the single digits. I think that the reason I do this is because I dislike being tethered to the wall and/or my computer. This flagrant disregard for battery power levels has not served me well over the years, and yet I remain stubborn. Be sure to ask in the comments the most precarious position this disregarding habit has gotten me into.

It has been suggested to me over the years that a portable battery of some brand would serve me well. As luck and fate would have it, I recently had the opportunity to review EasyAcc’s Classic Powerbank PB10000c charger.

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